I find that if I execute something using sudo
that then if I execute something else soon after also using sudo
, that it does not prompt me for my password, and although this can be inconvenient in some situations, it is a security risk in others, and a hassle to keep on coming back and executing the command to make it prompt your for the password on the next go. So I was wondering if and how I could get it to prompt me every time, or for it to at least only remember my password for a very short amount of time?
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In the opposite situation, if you work in a low-risk environment, constant prompting is incredibly irritating. Thanks for your question because the solution is essentially the same: change the timeout. – Suncat2000 Sep 09 '23 at 18:56
2 Answers
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Open Terminal and type:
sudo visudo
Then scroll down to the line that reads:
Defaults env_reset
And change it to:
Defaults env_reset,timestamp_timeout=0
You can change 0
to any values (time in minutes). Setting it to 0
will ask for your password every time and -1
will make it never ask. The default is 15
according to man sudo 8
, but some manuals say the default is 5
. Have a look at the RootSudoTimeout wiki for more information.
Press CTRL + X to finish editing, Y to save changes, and ENTER to exit.

Ron
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Yes, sorry about that. 15 mins according to
man sudo 8
, but some manual says 5 – Ron Jun 13 '15 at 18:17 -
Believe the manual you have on your system. Different distributions can chose their own defaults. – terdon Jun 13 '15 at 21:04
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From Terminal run:
echo "testuser1 ALL=(ALL) PASSWD: ALL" >> /etc/sudoers
Or:
visudo -f /etc/sudoers
Add the following line at the bottom of the file:
testuser1 ALL=(ALL) PASSWD: ALL

muru
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